#grover outwitting ares too

[fandom-animals]

What the actual FUCK did they put in this episode????

[cabin-3-counselor]

i've risen from my slumber for the biggest event of the year (personal opinion)

Perseus 'Percy' Jackson's Birthday

so here follows a incomplete speedrun of his achievements throughout his years as a demigod, Son of Poseidon

Percy at the age of 12 had already gone through 6 schools in six years because of accidents, related to his immortal side, that lead to many explosions in and of said schools

He controlled water to almost choke a class mate that was bullying his best friend, Grover Underwood, at 12

He fought off a Fury at 12

He killed the Minotaur at 12

He killed the Medusa at 12

He sent the head of Medusa to Mount Olympus

He killed a Chimera at 12

He out smarted and killed Procrustes at 12

He went to the Underworld to rescue his mother's soul and prove that he did not steal Zeus's Master Bolt

He survived the trip to the Underworld

He fought the manifestation of Terror in War, The God Ares, and won (he got one hit and Ares got too embarrassed so he ditched the fight)

He and his mother, used the head of Medusa to kill his stepfather, and after turning him into stone, sold his frozen corpse so they could get a better apartment and so that Sally could finally finance her college degree

He managed to fight off Luke Castellan and the venom from Orion's Scorpion so he could get to a river and be brought back to Camp Half-blood

Percy, at the age of 13 got into a new school and befriended a new outcast there, later on, said outcast, is revealed to be a monster whose race is considered particularly dangerous for demigods, but Tyson, said friend, turns out to be the sweetest cyclop to ever walk the planet

He fought a group of gigants at this new school with Tyson's help (in Portuguese, one of the gigants is called Zé Mané, which is the best piece of translation in a book I have ever seen)

He fought the Khalkotauroi, Colchis Bulls, right after fighting the cannibal giants, at Camp Half-blood's hill

This isn't much of a achievement but well he also did realise that Poseidon had other children and that Tyson, a monster, was one of them

He ventured the Sea of Monsters at 13

He saved Annabeth from the siren's songs at 13

He fought the cyclop Polyphemus, another half brother of his, at 13

He fought Luke Castellan, again, and won, again

He was in the mission, and a crucial player in said mission, to retrieve the Golden Fleece, that not only made the Pine Tree heal, but also brought Thalia back from the comatose/half dead state

He helped Groved in mission to rescue two demigods, children of Hades, at 14

He fought the Lion of Nemea at 14

Battled Talos, but eventually, Bianca Di'angelo, Daughter of Hades, Huntress of Artemis, was the one who actually destroyed Talos, it costed her life

He fought Atlas, the Titan sentenced to hold up the Sky (Ouranos) for all eternity, to ensure he never laid nor hurt Gaea (the Earth) again

He, for a brief moment, also held up the sky

With Annabeth, at age 15, he discovered one of the many entrances to Daedalus's Labyrinth

They, Annabeth, Grover, Percy and Tyson, faced the minor god Janus in a mission in the Labyrinth

They meet Briarea, the Hundred Handed One (personally, one of my favourite moments)

Cleaned Geryon's stables, without a Nymph's help (looking at you Herakles)

This one, this one isn't Percy's, but I need to mention Annabeth outwitting the Sphinx when they were on their way to Hephaestus

Percy and Annabeth go to Mount St. Helens, to aid Hephaestus, they battle the telekhines

PERCY GETS KISSED BY ANNABETH CHASE

Which leads to him blowing up Mount St. Helens and surviving it, at age 15

Ĥ̴̛̙͇͎̜̹͇͓̖̿̾͂̇́̚͝ę̸͉̹͔̻̐̆́͂̎̇̆̃ ̶̮̪̩̼̺̌͂̎̈́̅̽̐̍͛̚ͅg̶̢̫̺̘̳̗̙̖̏͐̒̌̊̀ơ̶̢͚̗̜̟̜͍͉̠̅ę̸͔̲̳̟͐̀̏͗͆͒̊͘̕͜͝s̸̢̟̃͋̀̕ ̵̞̻̭̼͚̖͎̳̬́̾͜ t̶̖̮̗̣̠̘̘̿̇ó̴̬̠̺̈́͌̌̅̾̿̐̕ ̵̛͔̳͇̈́̏͋͑͠ C̶̝̯̠̳͚͔̪̓́̋̀̑̒̂͆͝ͅą̸̹͐̽̀̏̊͗l̸͖͙̪̏̏̈́̇͗̚̚͘͜y̵̞͓͂̌̒̃p̸̹̻͖̝͌̈̕s̴͉̰̹͕̤̹̅o̸̧̤͖̩̮̥͖̊̍̀̈́'̴̭̮̲̉̒̓͒̚͠s̶̲̠̭̣͚͔̤͍̓́̉̐̎͠ ̴��͙͛͌̉̒̊̌ Ḯ̸̠͊̄̈́ş̴̳͈̲̠̬̙̿̎̇̏̊l̶͒̈̇̅̂͘͝a̷̞̦̝͇̗̖̓̆̒̾̐̃n̸̼̳͙̄̂̕͜d̵̨̛͕̘̎͂͑̐͛͌̿͝ͅ

When he comes back, Annabeth tries one last a expedition to the middle of the Labyrinth, there they end up in Antaeus gladiatoral fights

Percy at age 15 fights his half-brother, a giant, Anaetus, and wins (for anyone keeping score this is two fights now, against giants that Percy won WITHOUT the help of the gods, so either he is that powerful or rick contradicts himself in HoO, I prefer the first option cause I am completely biased)

They meet Pan, and before the God of the Wild dies, he gets blessed by him

Percy becomes a proud father of a demon dog, Mrs. O'Leary

Still at 15 Percy becomes the main general (for lack of better title) of the Camp Half-blood's army in the Battle of Manhattan

He blows up, with the help of Charlie Beckendorf, the Princess Andromeda, a ship used by Kronos and his army

At age of 15, Percy is taken to the Underworld, by Nico Di'Angelo, so that he can go to the River Styx and get to himself the Curse Achilles had

He gets offered the Pandora's Box and refuses it

He makes a deal with the entities of the Rivers Hudson and East to aid Camp's forces and drown Kronos's ships

Percy thought off Kronos, possessing Luke's body in Mount Olympus, and won

He was offered immortality, godhood, and refused it, in it's place he basically demanded the gods to pay child support

At age of 16 he ended the Second Titanomachy War

Percy helps Cater Kane, an Egyptian Magician in a fight against an Egyptian monster

At the same age he got kidnapped by Hera and stayed hidden away for an entire year untill the second great prophecy was ready to take it's course

At age 17 Percy, is sent to Camp Jupiter, by the wolf Lupa, Hera tried to take away his memories, but he remembers Annabeth

He fought off Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons Stheno and Euryale

He even without memory, knows he has beef with Ares/Mars when Mars appears at Camp Jupiter to send his son, Frank Zhang into a quest to release the God of Death, Thanatos

He defeats the karpoi with Frank

Percy fights another half sibling of his, it's a worrying trend

He helps retrieve the pride of the Twelfth Legion in the process of freeing Thanatos

He survives the fall off of a glacier

When they go back to Camp Jupiter, Percy with his memories now intact, he challenges the giant Polybotes to a duel, and now the ridicule rule lf "only a joint effort of a demigod and a god can defeat a giant", and he call upon Terminus, and wins

Still at 17 (my poor boy can't catch a break, I swear to god), he joins the Argo II crew and it becomes official that he is again, a important part of a second great prophecy

Percy almost killed Jason when possesed by Eidolons (it is my truth, jason trained his whole life and his abilities match percy's who barely trained half of the summers he was at camp since he was twelve)

"You dropped this" scene, no explanation needed, not only peak romance but also peak awareness of danger all the time

Percy knocks out Herakles

He outwits Chrysaor by impling that Dionysius is the real captain of the Argo II and that he would show up if the crew didn't complete their task

Percy falls into Tartarus with Annabeth

At Tartarus Percy controls the River Cocytus

Five minutes later he kills Arachne

He battles against the Empousai for like the third time since he was 14

Percy gets almost deadly hurt by killing the Arai, manifestations of the last curses some gives and in my boy's case. . . . he had many curses addressed to him

PERCY CHOKED THE GODDESS OF MISERY, AKHLYS, WITH HER OWN POISON. HE CONTROLLED THE POISO AND MOST CERTAINLY HER TO CHOKE ON IT (unofficially proof that he can bloodbend - like Katara - and control other liquids)

He and Annabeth outwit Nyx, Goddess Night

They fight Tartarus, God of the Pit (Hell)

He and Leo make Nike go bonkers

He is well . . . He is in the battle to stop Gaea and they win

[calamitydaze]

I've been pretty pos about the show overall (albeit with some criticisms, and I did think episodes 6 and 7 were disappointing and underwhelming) so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I can confirm that the last episode was really good! one of the bests out of the entire season, if I'm being honest.

they utilized flashbacks really well (Luke + Percy sparring), and the Luke scene was 10/10 imo

ok i finally watched the last episode (over 2 weeks after you sent this, sorry nonnie) and it was definitely the best of the bunch! i liked it :) a solid 6.5/10 maybe, if i had to give a number score? you didn't ask but i love sharing my opinion so, some bullet points:

THE GOOD:

zeus was legit really good! the first (and only) god to actually feel godly, something i've been CRAVING the entire show! "so when i say 'you may go' it means be grateful and it means be gone" is a bar and i'm so sad we won't get more of lance reddick's performance

the ares fight was cool-- good choreography, i like how much Bigger and more physically powerful ares is than percy, you could really feel the strength in his strikes which didn't come across as much in the books. finally seeing percy fully use his powers was neat too, and actually pretty good cgi! i wish it had been longer though. and i wish we got percy actually outwitting ares and using his strength and pride against him instead of ares just staring at the huge wave coming at him for 10 seconds. and feeling the presence of kronos would have been cool. and i wish they had kept ares' curse on him after being defeated which was so much cooler. but i guess i can't have everything

really glad we finally got some training flashbacks with luke! i agree that it's utilized great by being intercut with the ares fight and olympus, and i think they captured luke and percy's dynamic well! luke's line about not being both small and scary was a good addition

speaking of luke, the betrayal scene was also p good! the visual of the fireworks lighting up the scarred side of his face is great (though it would've been better if the scar looked nastier and we actually got its history......) and i think it makes a lot of sense for him to try and recruit percy instead of just killing him! "stop saying we" / "it's the word zeus fears the most" is another great line

percy apologizing after hitting luke was cute lmao, and imo he was a better character in general this episode-- we got more of his edge and impertinence (which i've sorely missed) but also more of his heart and loyalty

other cute things: the last scene between the trio, grover's searchers license being a flower, the sally scenes, percy calling kronos grandpa

walker's performance was also the best it's been so far, he felt like he embodied the character and got to show that he actually has talent

i like the idea of the "clarisse is the lightning thief" red herring! never bothered to watch episodes 6 and 7 though so i can't say much about it

not related to ep 8 specifically but since i haven't mentioned it yet, i actually really like the change of having four pearls instead of three! it works with show!percy being more explicitly focused on saving sally, it makes sense for poseidon to do that as a gesture of goodwill, and it gives more weight to "you shall fail to save what matters most in the end" if they Could have saved her and actually did fail by losing one of the pearls (<- the way they lost one was lame as fuck tho)

THE BAD:

starting off with a nitpick sorry but it bothers me so much that the prophecy line got changed to "find what was stolen and see it returned" when the original just objectively flows better

it also gets under my skin to no end that they just call mrs dodds "alecto" the whole time like what happened to names having power??

also mr d sucks shit he doesn't have that necessary threatening aspect or feel meaningfully resentful of the camp at all. case study: calling percy by the wrong name. in the books it's a sign of purposeful disrespect because he doesn't like percy and doesn't gaf about halfbloods in general, which makes it important on the few occasions when he does get it right, in the show it's just a bad joke

gabe accidentally petrifying himself is a bad change.. i get that it was a consequence of his own nosiness and lack of respect for others, and in a vacuum that's fine (and more fitting for a less explicitly abusive gabe), but it's so much weaker compared to the books. gabe being genuinely Awful adds so much strength to sally's character, both in her selfless love for percy by staying with gabe to protect him and when she actually does get to rescue herself and take control of her own life

i was underwhelmed by how olympus looked-- on a technical level it's pretty, but it was so grey and had none of the energy and sense of life described in the books (which is important for the contrast to how it looks in the fifth!) i think this is a flaw with how they use the volume as a whole, which i also noticed on the beach in the ares scenes. objectively it looks nice, but it's flat and boring when it's overused or you don't add other physical set dressing

was also disappointed they didn't include the gods' custom thrones and they're all nondescript metal :^( where's the personality! where's the whimsy!

making the quest deadline pass to set up poseidon surrendering for percy is fine i guess-- and i can see why it was changed since they've leaned so hard into The Gods Are Bad Parents and need to make it believable that percy wouldn't immediately side with luke-- but again, it's just... weaker than what we already had

i reeeeaaally hate that annabeth was there for the betrayal scene..... her clinging to the hope that luke could be turned back is a FUNDAMENTAL part of the story, both as a character flaw and what ultimately saves them, and i don't see how that could be believable going forward if she actually heard him say that he wants to tear the gods down? and if you're gonna do that at least have her react believably? like that's her big brother, who saved her, who she's known since she was 7, have her yell at him or cry or attack him or something! SOMETHING! why does this show hate annabeth so much i don't understand

i've liked the kronos dream sequences fine so far but i wasn't a big fan of this last one, too cartoon villainy for my taste

and finally to address the elephant in the room, my god the exposition is so fucking annoying, it's by far the biggest problem with the show. whenever percy starts explaining things to people (including people who Already Know the thing he's explaining) i'm like HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? HOW DID YOU DEDUCE THAT? the most egregious examples in this ep being:

1. figuring out kronos is behind everything. it's such a good little mystery in the book to find out who the big baddie is-- not even annebeth knowing who "the crooked one" is referring to, the mysterious presence on the beach, percy catching the word father in zeus and poseidon's conversation-- and it has a genuine sense of ominousness and ancientness and "THIS WOULD BE REALLY FUCKING BAD" that just isn't present at all in the show because he either already knows or those moments doesn't happen

2. figuring out luke's betrayal. i just don't buy that percy would be able to deduce that with the information he has, and while i like luke wanting to convert him in theory, it would've been so much more powerful to have that slowly-dawning dread as luke reveals his plan and tries to appeal to percy as a friend while also sounding more bitter and angry than he ever has before, rather than percy already knowing and expecting it

anyway i think those are all my thoughts! i know i sound like i hated it lmao but i really didn't (this last episode at least), it was a decently fun watch and i'm doing my best to be fair about the things they did right! although those things are almost More frustrating because i can see the flashes of potential that are ultimately drowned out by an overall disappointing experience :/ but i would love to hear other opinions if anyone wants to share! i never wanna take someone else's enjoyment away and i really am so happy for everyone who liked it